Steam now offering Software

[Tharic-Nar]

Today, Valve has began to offer Software via the popular digital distribution platform, Steam. There has been much speculation in regards to when this would launch since missing it's initial launch window in September. With the launch of this new Software service, Valve is currently offering 10% off all new software titles, until Tuesday October 9th at 10am PST.

You can read the rest of our post and discuss here.

[Rob Williams]

I am kind of stoked about this, I admit. Why? I am not really sure. I guess it's my hope that at some point, this might become a really big thing, and it might allow us to get some great software at great prices. Prior to this, there has never been a really great way to buy software like this for the PC, so it could prove to be a winner.

There's no way that movies aren't in the pipeline as well. Though maybe Valve is really just trying to keep this strictly computer software.

[Tharic-Nar]

That's the one thing missing from the Windows platform in general, a place to browse software. This is something (else) that Linux has been years ahead on. Sure, we have websites and such which sell software, sometimes with feedback, but that's about it, very little integration past that. Steam will also let us move on from the single PC license model too, by tying software to accounts instead (if companies are willing).

It does go beyond this though. There will now be a system in place to roll out updates without user intervention. A central location for feedback. The current crop of apps is a little underwhelming, but it's a start.

I'm sure there will be comparisons to Apple's App Store, soon to be released Windows store, Google Play, etc, but there is a fundamental difference here. Valve uses a rather stringent vetting process, something that all of the above do not. Do not mistake standards compliance with a vetting process, or debate over all of them being a closed ecosystem, there are some significant differences.

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc, all use a standards based store. As long as the application/game you release to the store follows certain guidelines (be they published or not), then you can pretty much release anything you want to the store, even if it is a blatant ripoff of another game/app or doesn't actually do anything at all. Each app is not actually reviewed, just checked to see if it works and does not cause harm, content is irrelevant. Valve actively checks the quality of the content as well (along with the community via the new Greenlight system). It also helps developers get their content ready for release, rather than just saying yay or nay.

I do see quite a strong future in this, just as long as the standards don't drop and we're onslaughted by millions of meaningless me-too apps.

[Kougar]

Rob, actually I would say you are right. The "big picture" feature Steam debuted recently is best FOR movies, honestly I don't see any other reason to have it at all. It even feels exactly like Windows Media Center did.

Valve has been aggressively persuing new markets of late... everything from hardware consoles to new OS's to software packages. I'm sure movies are in the works.But look at Hulu, Netflix, Amazon, and especially iTunes. Valve can't enter this market until their software is 100% developed, bugfree, fully featured, AND they have the largest amount of content they can possibly launch with before they would stand a chance of direct competition.